CONTEXT

Administrative and biographical history: Idris
Cox was born in 1899 at Llwydarth Cottages, Maesteg. His father was a miner.
In 1900 the family moved to Cwmfelin where Idris lived for the first 24 years of
his life. As a boy, he joined his father at Garth Pit to work as an assistant
to a coal hewer. He began to be interested in politics and at the age of 18 was
elected to the Management Committee of Garth Miners' Institute. In 1920 he
became the official Lodge delegate to the Maesteg district of miners and to all
coal-field conferences. It was also in this year that Idris attended his first
Marxist class. In 1921 he was elected Lodge Chairman and he also became
involved in the Maesteg Relief Committee which organised canteens throughout the
valley to feed the children during the 1921 lockout.In 1923 Idris Cox
gained a scholarship from the South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF) enabling him
to study at the Labour College in London for two years and it was here that he
first met many men who would later become influential in the labour movement.
After the 1924 general election Idris became an active member of the Communist
Party. In 1925 Idris left the Labour College to return to South Wales. However
he returned to no job and after a short period as a deputy-checkweigher he
became unemployed once more. Idris became a member of the small Communist
branch in Maesteg and helped them to form a branch of the National Unemployed
Workers' Movement (NUWM)In October 1925 he got a job at Oakwood
Pit.In October 1926 Idris Cox attended his first National Congress of the
Communist Party. Finding himself unemployed once more he began to get more
involved in the unemployed movement speaking at labour exchanges and tutoring
Communist educational classes. He was made the Area Organiser for the Communist
branches in Mid-Glamorgan. In 1927 he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Maesteg
Labour Party. At the Communist Party Conference in Cardiff May 1927 he was
elected District Secretary. In 1928 he was co-opted to the National Executive
of the Communist Party and later on in the same year he attended the Sixth
Congress of the Communist International in Moscow.After the 1929 General
Election Harry Pollitt was chosen to take over the post of General Secretary of
the party from Albert Inkpin. Idris Cox was brought from Wales to London to be
part of the new Political Bureau. He was given charge of the Parliamentary
Department. At this time he was also working as a correspondent to the
`Workers' Weekly'. During the 1930s he held the position of National Organiser
in the party and spent most of his time visiting various districts around
Britain. While visiting Bradford he met his future wife, Dora Roberts who
similarly had involvements in the labour movement and the Communist Party. They
married in 1931.In 1934 he stood in the County Council elections in South
Wales for the Caerau and Nantyffyllon division in the Maesteg Valley. He was a
close second to the Labour candidate. In 1935 Idris became Editor of the Daily
Worker .He later became Secretary to the International Department and
worked in this capacity for 18 years, retiring in 1970. During this time he had
close relations with leaders of national liberation movements in Asia, Africa,
the Middle East and the Caribbean and was involved in the formation of the
Movement for Colonial Freedom. Idris Cox was the author of numerous political
pamphlets and books including The Hungry Half: a Study in the Exploitation of
the `Third World' (1970) and Socialist Ideas in Africa (1966).

CONTENT

Scope and content: Autobiography, undated (1972 (c)) Story of a Welsh Rebel ,
typescript version of Idris Cox's
life.

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